Holiday Traditions
I’m so excited to have Alexandra, from My Urban Family, here on the blog today. She’s talking about holiday traditions today, and how we can make them work for our families as they change. Even though they are holiday traditions, it doesn’t mean they don’t need a little updating every once in a while.
Tweaking My Favorite Holiday Traditions
Every family has their own set of family traditions for the holidays. And after years of upholding those traditions, changes can be a little rough. But with kids growing older and eventually getting married and starting a family of their own, traditions need to bend a bit. Or sometimes change all together.
My husband and I have been celebrating holidays with each other’s families for a good number of years now, so some of the shifting has already happened. But with talks of starting our own family in the hopefully near future, we have been focusing this year on which traditions we would like to keep, adjust, or throw out all together by the time we have kids.
Here is what we have come up with so far:
Traditions to Keep
Our family schedule
Driving around to see holiday lights
This one has fallen to the side slightly now that there are no more children in the family, but each year I try to bring it back a bit. It’s still so fun to me and once we had kids I plan on making it a yearly event.
Traditions to Tweak
Tons and tons of tangible gifts
Don’t get me wrong, we really love exchanging gifts. But we also really enjoy going out and experiencing the world around us, especially with our loved ones. And do we really need to give our kids mass piles of toys each December? Definitely not. And we don’t need many things either.
We’ve already started to adjust this tradition on both sides of our family. We’ve been trying to exchange smaller items, and then pick an experience or two for everyone to enjoy together. Last year we decided on a play.
Making a Gingerbread House
Last year we started to tweak this tradition, and I loved it so much I’m going to try to move this change forward. What did we do? We bought two gingerbread house kits, plus a bunch of extra candy, and created our home, including little gingerbread people who were us. It was so funny to have it as our centerpiece on the table and see who started to notice first.
Traditions to Get Rid Of
Turkey Dinner
Maybe we missed something, but for many years Christmas dinner always seemed to be Thanksgiving dinner over again. But why? This tradition is getting thrown out the window. We haven’t hosted Christmas yet, but when we do, we plan on being more creative with our menu. If we can serve Chinese food for Thanksgiving (yes, we did this one year…), then we can really mix things up for Christmas.
Cookie Exchange
I know, I know. Bah humbug, right? But honestly, during the holidays I don’t have time to bake 50+ cookies and I don’t really need to take home 50 either. Yes, they are always delicious, but this tradition is not nice to my free time or my waistline.
While I’m sure our traditions will continue to grow and change along with our family, this is our start. Do you have favorite holiday traditions that you can’t wait to continue? Or perhaps, ones you are looking to discard as well? I’d love to hear about them!
Alexandra is a writer, graphic designer and photographer currently living in the suburbs of Chicago. Along with her husband, she is embarking on a journey of downsizing, moving into the heart of the city, and starting a family. Her blog, My Urban Family is a mix of her adventures, experiences, life advice, Chicago themed posts, and family friendly topics. You can also follow her on Facebook // Twitter //Pinterest // Instagram // Bloglovin!
I love this! I have found that over the years I have adjusted and modified traditions sort of organically, I honestly didn’t give much thought to it as it happened, but looking back over the years it’s interesting to see what we’ve let go of and what we’ve embraced!
Thanks! I’m interested to see how closely we follow this path as well 🙂
Once you have kids everything goes topsy turvy but in the best possible way. One of my favorite traditions is the night before Christmas ‘pjs, snack, movie’ gift. A basket filled with the kids’ fav snacks, fav drinks, a new movie and cozy new pajamas!
I love all of these. We decided to ditch the turkey dinner last year and I loved it. It made my day a lot easier. I had more time to enjoy my family.
Yes! When the meal has a little less pressure then the rest of the day becomes more relaxing and about time with loved ones. 🙂
I love looking at the lights too, my little ones were too young for us to look at lights the past few years (and I was too pregnant to enjoy it) but I hope we can this year!
I love the Christmas exe and day for immediate family and then dinner afternoon for everyone else. Great idea!
Thanks! I really love that we have designated time each year for just the smaller group of us. And I hope you’re able to go see some lights this year!
I think many of us tend to get stuck in the traditions that we grew up with, but you bring up some great points about starting your own and changing them up!
Thanks! I definitely was stuck in mine until my husband and I started to go to each others holidays more and more. Then things had to kind of start shifting a bit.
Last year for Christmas we had appetizers. Everyone brought a couple and it was fun. I don’t know if I’m willing to forgo turkey AGAIN since I hardly got any on Thanksgiving. 🙂
I love the appetizer idea! So fun 🙂
Love these! My family and I have started moving away from doing the whole turkey dinner for Christmas. It makes it easier to not have to cook all the crazy foods like Thanksgiving. The holidays become so stressful at times. It should really be about enjoying time with your loved ones.
I totally agree! And maybe it’s because I’m not a very avid cook, but a large turkey screams stress to me. I mean, it has to cook all day long and then be pulled out at just the right time. I’d rather worry about how much more time in my pjs I have before family comes over instead 😉
Cookie exchange! :O!!!!! For me it’s the fact that my traditions aren’t what my new family does so we are trying to sit down and come up with our own traditions. Nice post! Thanks for the ideas!
No problem! It’s always fun to make some new traditions 🙂
I love Christmas family traditions! We spend Christmas Eve with immediate family as well – mostly it’s us and my parents! We exchange gifts on Christmas Eve here in Germany! We always have a turkey dinner on Christmas Day and I so love that tradition! I just love spending time with my loved ones, laughing, eating, drinking and having fun! Great post – I love Alexandra’s blog and the fact that she lives where I left my heart 4 years ago!
Thanks so much, Chrissy! And I really enjoy how much love you still have for Chicago <3
Hi Alexandra,
Our holiday traditions have changed a little too since our kids have grown up. We now take our grandsons to see Christmas lights but we still open presents on Christmas morning in our pj’s and have breakfast together.
And for family get togethers, we do Christmas Eve at my parents and have Christmas dinner with my in-laws. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your post with us. Hope it’s been a great week.
Cori
Thanks Cori! I love that you still open gifts in your pjs on Christmas morning 🙂
I love your take on this. We have definitely tweaked (and continue to do so), added to, and gotten rid of some of our family traditions in the last 9 years and now that we have kids we have kids, I am so glad we did. The holidays are all about having a meaningful and magical time and it is hard to do that when you feel like you are forced to do something out of habit. This year, we are letting go of having people over for Christmas morning and focusing on our kids being able to enjoy their presents without a bunch of people around and really relax.
I totally agree that sometimes the habits get in the way and you forget why you’re even doing the things you’re doing!
We also used to do the whole Thanksgiving dinner on Christmas too but in recent years we’ve switched it up to sometimes have breakfast for dinner or whatever foods we’re in the moods for. These are all really sweet family traditions. 🙂
I love the idea of breakfast for a Christmas dinner!
I tend to be a ‘the more cookies, the better’ type of gal, but I understand what you mean. This year my husband and I are getting each other actual gifts for Christmas, which feels really exciting after pretty much skipping the last few years due to constant moving. My siblings and I actually just made a video about how living overseas has dramatically changed our Christmas traditions….and yet Christmas remains awesome. 🙂 Here’s our video, if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PJfPxcX-yg
Cute video! Thanks for sharing 🙂 And I understand about the cookies too
I love this! We’ve definitely tweaked several of our traditions. The biggest was buying an assembled gingerbread house after years of frustration!
Haha I’ve seen those lately – what a good idea! The frosting the other ones come with to assemble them always seems either too thin or too thick.
Yes! Growing up my parents and I would drive around looking at the lights as well! We made it special by bringing hot chocolate and listened to Christmas music! Such memories!
So fun! And hot chocolate during the car ride is a must!
I loved reading about your traditions! Our holiday traditions have changed a bit now that our daughter is a teenager. She still likes to make the gingerbread houses though! We host Christmas Eve every year and have an array of appetizers instead of a full meal. We also reserve Christmas morning just for us now.
Jill
Doused In Pink
I love that. Christmas morning really should be just for immediate family in my opinion 🙂
I love that you are flexible but aware of the ones you really want to keep. I love family traditions! So fun!
Thanks Emily! I’m sure they will keep changing over time as well 🙂
Traditions are only worth it if they fit your family’s needs! I do prime rib instead of turkey on Christmas eve and then left overs on Christmas day!
Ooo prime rib sounds so much better than turkey! I may have to suggest that for a different year 🙂
Hi Alexandra,
As time changes, we need to modify our traditions and blend it with our modern living and comfort. I liked your Chinese cuisine idea on Thanksgiving. Festivals are meant for celebrating the joys of life with family. Thanks for sharing this wonderful post with us.
Ana
Thanks, Ana! The Chinese cuisine Thanksgiving really surprised everyone but it was so much fun!
I’ve kept and tweaked some of my family’s Christmas traditions also! I love that I can make my own with my own little family. I love driving around to see Christmas lights!
Christmas light drives are so fun. It’s the one time I actually drive around without really an end goal in mind 🙂
Yes, no more cookie exchanges! I usually end up eating most of it myself!! I find with little kids we are just starting some of own traditions, seeing what works best for our family.
I’m glad someone else agrees about no more cookie exchanges! haha
I loved this post! I took some on my family’s tradition and my husband’s family tradition and made our own. For example my family always drove around on christmas eve to look at the lights but my husband’s family always had a christmas eve party… so we combined the two and we have a christmas eve party then we end the night by looking at lights.
I love that you were able to merge the two together easily! My husband and I had some conflicting ones for awhile haha but it’s working out!
Hi, Alexandra
Love this post!
We have 2 daughters both of them in their 20’s. From my experience as parent, it is very important to carry on some traditions like driving around to see the lights, making gingerbread house, wrapping gifts, etc.
The kids have some good times of childhood to remember in their life.
Thanks Stella! I do think childhood is fun when it’s filled with traditions and new adventures!
It really is interesting to see how different seasons of life change things like the holidays!!
It definitely does! 🙂
It’s great to change the what doesn’t work for you. Turkey really does not have to be part of the Christmas dinner tradition. So funny how things change and you find out what’s truly important to you.
Thanks Iyanna! It has been a journey and I’m sure it will keep changing as time goes on 🙂
So two years in a row I have bought stuff for gingerbread houses and not made them. I swear one of these days….
Growing up all my cousins, my mom, my aunt, and my Gram would all get together for a Cousin Cookie Baking day. We would bake numerous batches of cookies and then divide them out at the end. It was so much fun to do this together, but as we’ve all gotten older and started work or families, we haven’t been able to coordinate schedules. Getting married definitely means tweaking holiday traditions and starting some of your own.